Overheard

Kieran told Maranda today that he hasn't decided if he wants to be a genius or an expert, LOL.

The money you could be saving with Geico

So Kieran thinks the Geico money commercials are hilarious. Also, there is a big billboard of the geico money character near his daycare, and he always points it out with great zeal. Today for crafts they could make whatever they wanted. When Maranda arrived Kieran proudly displayed his handiwork, and said "look mom, it is the money you could be saving with Geico!" We are both still laughing, this is hilarious.

Check out his handiwork HERE

Party In My Tummy

Ever since we first saw this clip, this has been a refrain in our family around dinner time!  Kieran had mommy call me at work this afternoon, and he told me there WASN'T a party in his tummy because they had pizza at school that he couldn't eat (milk allergy).  "But," he breathlessly relayed, "later there WILL be a party in my tummy because mommy is going to make Pizza!!!!"

This song has weird, hypnotic staying power, you have been forewarned!

The Real You

Do you sometimes feel like the real you is in hiding, just waiting to be revealed!

Funny as his Dad....

The other day Kieran was on the phone with his Grandpa Paul. During the conversation Grandpa stated, "I'm an old fart!" Kieran digested this for a couple seconds, then responded, "Well, I'm a new fart!" We all burst out laughing hysterically....

Overheard at the Tennyson's

On the way home from the baby sitter's, Kieran and Daddy had the following dialogue:

Kieran: Daddy, we should eat at a restaurant tonight!

Daddy: I think we should go home because mommy said there is some tasty dinner ready.

Kieran: I don't want to eat at Mommy's restaurant!

Charlie Bit Me!!!

Kieran and I love this clip!

Rice & Beans

One of Kieran's favorite dishes is rice and beans, especially Chipotle rice and beans! So the other day, on the way home from Kieran's babysitters, Kieran spotted Chipotle's out the window. "Please dad, can we stop and get some rice and beans, please!!!" Knowing that there was dinner at home and also wanting to teach Kieran some fiscal responsibility, I responded, "Well, rice and beans cost money, so we better go home and eat the dinner that is at our house." Kieran thought for a moment, then innocently responded, "Well, when we get some more money, maybe then we can have some rice and beans?" LOL! I can just see the astonishment when Kieran tells people that Daddy is trying to make more money so he can eat rice and beans!! I do applaud his problem solving skills though, an engineer in the making! ;)

Mountain Lion Attack - Actual Sign

Hillarious sign that was found in coal canyon in central Washington state.

Slow Hit and Run

So much for a speedy get-away. Keep your eyes peeled for 8mph wreckless scooter drivers! (I sincerely do hope they catch up to the bugger).

New Year with a Bang!

Kieran decided to celebrate the new year by cooking his bottle of vitamins in the microwave! Needless to say, we are heading out to try and catch a New Year's special on Microwaves as the Microwave had a fire burning inside of it for a few minutes before Mommy was alerted.

The picture below is not our microwave, but it could be. If you added a small fire inside and made the smoke blacker it would be the exact image we encountered.



P.S. Ken was on baby duty, and was passed out on the couch when this happened. So an early start for father-of-the-year award!

Mental Unstable

It came upon a midnight bath...

Mmmmm, this seems like a bit overkill on celebrating Christmas. I mean, I like nativity scenes and all, but it seems a little weird to have one floating around you in a bubble bath!



HT: Calacirian

The Danger of Being Clean

This may be the most important article you read this week. I say this only in part because it appears to at least partly vindicate my thirty year campaign against excessive hygene! The researcher suggests that the American fascination with hygene is primarily cosmetic and has become a social norm in part due to the advertising industry. According to this author, the only clear hygenic benefits are hand washing, everything else is just personal comfort or to meet social norms.

Indeed, our fascination with hygene may even be making our kids sick! Supporting a claim I have often made in the past (can you see I am anxious for vindication here?), the researcher write, "In order to harden the immune system, the immune system requests some kind of stimuli all the time." Indeed, this correlates to the homeopathic method of medicating patients by giving them a little of the "bad stuff," to trigger their bodies natural immune response and heal naturally.

When asked if our hygene obsession helps keep us from getting sick, the researcher responded, "No. Not at all. I think it's making us sicker in the case of the hygiene hypothesis. It's increasingly believed by a large number of doctors and scientists, who say that the fact that we're not giving one of our immune systems enough dirt and germs to kind of flex its muscles on and get strong is allowing the other immune system, the one that gets allergies and asthma, to [take over]."

Wow, I mean, double wow! We could be healthier, have less respiratory problems, less illness, and less auto-immune disease if we simply washed less! I mean, talk about an easy call to action, all we have to do is stop doing something that takes time, wastes water, and is often uncomfortable (my wife disagrees here). Having a symbiotic relationship with dirt and bacteria is the key to a healthier life! As the researcher states, "it's not good for our health to have robbed ourselves of all these bacteria with which we have had a pretty fruitful coexistence."

From now on, when someone notices that I haven't showered in a couple days, or my body odor is a bit strong, I will just tell them I am having a "fruitful coexistence" with bacteria!

Charging Ahead

Have you ever had the feeling that your half naked body is strapped to the front of a runaway train, and the only way you can slow it down is fashioning a make-shift wind drag out of your undergarments and hope for the best?


No? Me neither.

Loving Support

So the other day I was bemoaning all my personal failings to Maranda, something I do on a regular basis. At one point I paused and said, "well, at least I am not a serial killer!" In autopilot mode, Maranda quickly responded, "Not Yet..."

Ouch...

Adventures in Parenting - Part II

So the other morning Kieran and Daddy were in the office playing on our "computers" (Daddy has a dual processor AMD screaming machine, Kieran has an old keyboard) when we heard a commotion in the bedroom. Maranda was getting Grandma Kathy's opinion of how a blouse matched a couple different skirts and had ran into some difficulty in retrieving a skirt from its hanger. In a moment of frustration she yanked the hanger free and flopped the skirt onto the bed, exclaiming "flippin closet!." Kieran had wandered in and not recognizing the need for a Grandma filter, quickly translated "f@cking closet!" It is moments like these that you wish you had the ability to instantly turn into a gnat and crawl under the floor boards for a while. Really not much you can say to redeem the situation, as I doubt G-Ma would buy my mutterings about "kids programs these days...."

Grandma, in case you read this we are aggressively addressing the situation. I am installing quick release hangers in all of our closets!

The Good Life

I found these to be quite funny. Before I am condemned for making fun of rural dwellers of America, please know that I have been guilty of one of the things displayed below, and would easily consider several others! Bonus points if you can guess which ones!!

You Might be a redneck if...

A little rain doesn't spoil the fishing...



You carry your front porch with you...



You need fashion tips from your husband...



You wear a shirt like this for your engagement picture...(and your fiancé looks like she is 12)!



Your wedding picture looked like this.



And your wedding cake looked like this...



Your mailbox looks like this...



Your doghouse looks like this...



Your pickup looks like this...



You have a deer's butt for a door bell...



You don't need a lake to do a little skiing...



Or if your wife is quoted in the local paper saying...

Father of the Year entry

So sometimes the stupid things we do as parents take a while to materialize and we are spared for a few years the consequences of our actions. In other instances, the repercussions are quite fast, say 24 hours. The other night I was playing with Kieran and just generally goofing around, I seem to have an enlarged ability to come down to an 18 month olds maturity level! At one point I got this great idea to play a biting game. I would gently bite Kieran's arm until he pulled away, then his foot, ear, and so on. It certainly didn't cause any harm and his peals of laughter were ricocheting of the ceiling. In turn he would also clamber up on me and gently bite my nose, my chin, and so on. I am sure most of you by now see where this story is going...

Sure enough, when I arrived at his daycare the following afternoon, Tina (who runs the daycare in her home) reported that out of the blue Kieran had started biting everyone! She said it was out of character and that a few times the bites really hurt. I reacted in disbelief and said, well kids go through stages at this age (as my mind was racing back to the night before). Tina responded that she figured his back teeth were coming in and he needed to chew on something. Still refusing to incriminate myself I replied, "yes, that certainly must be the problem, it should go away shortly." I sheepishly scuttled out of her home, feeling more than a little guilty that my misguided son had gotten in trouble because of his father's stupidity! So now that I have come clean, I vow in this public forum - NO MORE BITING GAMES! I will at least have to be creative in finding other ways to screw up my son!

I think I am in strong contention for the Father of the Year award, although I do face some stiff competition here and also here.

The Real Cookie Monster

Yesterday morning after Daddy had left for work, Mommy was lying in bed catching a last few precious minutes while Kieran played with toys. As he had wandered out of the bedroom, Mommy kept one ear on alert for noises of concern. Particularly concerning noises from an 18 month old are: a loud "uh oh," an interested "wow, poopy," and the sound that was heard this particular morning, a chair scrapping across the kitchen floor.

Maranda snapped up in bed to hear little feet padding in the kitchen followed by soft incantations of "cookie, cookie, cookie" and the unmistakable sound of our kitchen chair being slowly and deliberately pulled across the tile. A smile crossed her face as she realized that Kieran was on a mission to recover one of the cookies on the counter that he and mommy had baked the night before.

In a few moments she had halted the attempted burglary, but didn't have the heart to deny him a cookie as the fruit of his labor. Daddy has smiled more than once at the image of his precious son quietly chanting cookie as he inched the kitchen chair into the proper cookie rescue position.